Snowflake
by ZabuFanfics
Summary: In the distant future, Robots seem to be everywhere, and Momochi Zabuza hates them. Despite that, he ends up saving a helpless robot named Haku, and in turn, winds up neck deep in a plan to wipe out all artificial intelligence. Will he allow these plans to come to fruition, or try and stop them despite his feelings? Shamless Chobits/Surrogates ripoff. Light Yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Momochi Zabuza, and I can honestly say that I don't like Robots.

In the past, robots were only things of fiction. They were only things we could see in movies and dream about and say, "That could happen one day". Artificial intelligence mankind could command was definitely a farfetched thought, even in the most technological times in the past.

Of coarse, that was the past. From the viewpoint of someone who never even toyed with the thought of owning a robot, I can't give you an in depth history on their creation. To me, it was like they sprung up overnight and slowly began dominating the world market. Soon, everyone had a robot. Schools, large companies, factories- they even began to appear in homes. It became the new thing to have, sort of like how I imagine when cell phones became pocket sized and everyone had to have one.

Their creation was met with protest, is the only thing I honestly remember. Everyone favored the storybook version of how machines would eventually rise up and kill us all more than what the companies who started the trend: Hyuuga enterprises and Uchiha corp. They assured everyone that no such thing could truly happen outside Hollywood film.

To me, the protests seemed to dissipate faster than I would have wanted, and now-a-days, it seems I'm out there alone, the only person on this god forsaken planet who hasn't bought into the new age of artificial intelligence. I honestly never trusted robots, not like they've done anything to lose my trust- besides the total overnight destruction of the number one leading robotics company that even now won't be explained. I just don't like the thought of putting my trust in something that can put the most intelligent of our species to shame. One can only assume they'll soon obtain the knowledge to figure out they could easily wipe all of us out.

So I always felt I was doing the world a favor by keeping one more of them packed away in a factory rather than walking among us. That is, until that snowy day when I broke my one rule.

After having been locked out of my own apartment by my angry roommate, Kuro, who was bent on me actually going to school on a regular basis, I still had no motivation to go to any of my classes. Being thrown out of your home and into the biter cold of winter can do that to a person. So I decided to take the time I had been given that could have been spent in a warm lecture hall walking down the cold streets of the city instead. I had nothing to do at the time, nothing to think about, and nothing to even go and look at. Which is probably why I mindlessly wandered into the worst parts of town, which, ironically enough, is located closest to the Hyuuga robotics factory.

I finally actually became aware of my surroundings when I heard a scream. It wasn't a normal scream, but one that sounded like it was enveloped in static, which is why I had to stop and figure out where it had come from. The screaming ended up leading me a ways away from the main street- where any sane person my age would stay close to like their life depended on it- and down several crowded alleyways, ground choked with garbage and the view of the sky blocked almost completely by criss-crossing wire.

My curiosity was quenched after a final zigzag turn into another dark and crowded alleyway, where I came face to face with what I thought was an older, drunk guy beating on a younger girl. It didn't take long, though, to see she was missing an arm, and that wire was the only thing that spilled out of her exposed insides.

He was beating up a robot. And why did I even care? I shouldn't have, and I honestly did go over my "one less robot in the world" outlook, but instead, I played the selfless hero and charged forward. It honestly could have ended worse, but it seemed someone was looking out for me that day in some twisted way, seeing as the guy was so drunk off his ass I managed to push him out of the way, grab the robot he was assaulting by the shirt and ran off without even worrying about the guy.

Of course, I ran like a pussy when it was all said and done, even after I reached the main road (I'll be the first to admit, I'm much more of a big talker than an actual fighter). And I only stopped after the robot I totally had forgotten I was dragging behind me tripped me and sent me flying onto the icy ground on my ass. I only checked to see if whatever I saved was okay after I finally caught my breath enough to talk and made sure I hadn't sprained anything from eating it onto the ice. Wheezing like an overweight jogger, I looked up from where I was sprawled out to see the robot leaning down, studying me carefully with wide, brown eyes. Robot eyes are pretty creepy when you look at them up close. You can see the machinery working behind the glossy lens and fake iris.

"Whoa!" Was the first word I ever directed at it. In surprise, the robot jumped, standing back up straight and went about futzing around with the stray wires hanging down from it's stump of an arm.

"Are you okay?" I asked, but only got silence in return, along with this odd, nervous side-glance, like it was trying to pretend I wasn't there. It was a stupid thing to ask anyway, robots can be programmed to act human-like but honestly can't feel pain. That and the robot was missing an arm, in any case- human or robot- that would mean you weren't okay.

"Hey." I began again, and waited until the robot actually turned to me. "My friend…she can fix that." I said, pointing to its arm. The robot followed the direction of my point to its' injury, then back to me, like I had asked the most complicated of questions. To the extent of my knowledge, robots were supposed to be pretty intelligent, so why was this one acting like a lost, mentally handicapped child? I tried making the same sentence as simple as I could, making large hand gestures like I was playing charades with it, but I still got the same blank stare as an answer. We both probably looked ridiculous: a spacey and ill-kept robot wearing nothing but an extra large T-shirt with one arm and a guy sitting on his ass speaking like a really loud caveman.

"Oh, common," I finally groaned in defeat, staggering to my feet and grabbing the robot by the one other hand it had left. "I'll just take you there." Despite the fact it looked at me probably with the same amount of fear he did the angry drunk guy back in the alleyway, the robot willingly followed behind, making sure to let go and not bother to help whenever I slipped and fell on ice hidden beneath the snow covered sidewalk.

Eventually we got back to my apartment, where it got to witness me pounding on and yelling through the door at my roommate, Kuro, who's only response was "go to school", not letting me get in a word edgewise about my new, broken robot friend. In the end it wasn't Kuro who let us in at all, but her robot, Mayu.

Mayu is a living example of what happens when you serve two masters (I myself didn't want to be considered such- she gave me the title against my telling her over and over again I didn't want to be) and usually displays some sort of robot anxiety over the fact she can never please both me and Kuro. Besides being a personal housekeeper, Mayu is, in so little words, just Kuro's very expensive guinea pig. She built Mayu herself, mostly from parts she had pilfered from the company that practically owns her soul, Hyuuga enterprises. She was built primarily to help Kuro with computer work, although she'd somehow gotten into her artificial head that she's now our maid.

Kuro, on the other hand is Mayu's opposite. She's sloppy and messy and hardly cares to help out with anything that doesn't pertain to her office space filled to the brim with computers (said office space was supposed to be a living room at one point in time, just to give you a picture on how much room her work takes up). But despite the fact she's not exactly the roommate of the century, she's apparently a genius, which got her one of the head programming spots in her line of work. She's also the only one of us who pays rent, so I can't really ever complain.

"Mayu!" Kuro scolded, standing up from her seat to look over one of her many glowing monitors, "What did I just tell you!?"

"But master Zabuza said he wanted in." Mayu feebly argued back. Any further argument that could have been shared between them was abruptly put to an end as I coaxed the robot I had found inside the house.

"What did you do!" Kuro exclaimed, Mayu mimicking the almost frightened surprise as she took a step backward. I groaned, though I wasn't surprised Kuro's first thought was that I was the one who ripped off the robot's arm.

"I didn't do a thing," I told her, taking the robot by the hand and bringing it over to where Kuro could get a better look at it. "I rescued it from getting destroyed by a drunk in the slums." She looked at me like she didn't believe me at first, but quickly turned her attention to the robot, who was staring in silent admiration of the many computers Kuro had in her possession. "I just figured you could fix it."

"…" Kuro studied the robot carefully, scanning every inch of its body with her eyes. "Interesting, I can't tell what sort of model it is." She said, mostly to herself. "What is your name?" The robot answered her with a stupid tilt of its head, it's mouth open slightly.

"It can't speak." I added.

"Nonsense, even when they suffer the most violent beating, robots still can maintain most of their basic functions, especially speech." She muttered, closely examining the robot, who in tern copied her actions and leaned in to carefully analyze Kuro.

Sighing, Kuro took a step back. "I guess I can look into it later, first let's at least get you a new arm." Without warning she grabbed the robot by the wrist, who, like when I had pulled it to the apartment, took a bit of coaxing before it finally willingly followed behind her.

Kuro's room was just as cluttered with her work as her office space was. Screens of data lined the walls, immersing the entire room in a dim blue glow. She also had a fairly large collection of robot parts, mostly from her early days of creating and programming Mayu.

I stood outside while She did her work, most of the time being pestered by Mayu, who insisted on asking me if I needed anything exactly every five minutes. Mayu is eccentric about doing her job, a little too well, might I add.

"Alright, your robot friend isn't armless anymore." Kuro informed me, stepping out of her room followed closely by the robot, who seemed overjoyed by it's newly placed limb, twisting and moving it about like it were trying to dance. "And I also have a bit of news about it as well." She added, sitting at her office chair and beckoning the robot over. "It's a male model." Before I opened my mouth she knew exactly what I was going to say. "It happens a lot. Most of the time it's a factory error when male models end up looking like women." As if to help prove Kuro's point, the robot grabbed the hem of it's shirt and exposed itself happily to us- or rather himself. Mayu gasped and quickly turned the other way.

"Alright, alright, we get it." Kuro groaned, forcing the robot's shirt back over his lover half. "Now I need to check and see what's wrong with your brain." He didn't seem to comprehend what she meant, so Kuro forced him to sit in her chair and produced a USB cord before he could leap up and run away. Roughly she shoved the device into the robot's ear, who went limp, emitting a low beep as it's eyes became lifeless.

"Alright, now we can figure out everything we need to know." Kuro explained as I walked over to look over her shoulder. Her hurricane-like typing suddenly stopped, though, when she was met with an error message.

"What is that?" I finally asked after we encountered it several times.

"It doesn't make any sense," Kurro sighed, trying again and failing. "Your robot friend doesn't have any memory chip, and it's basic function modules look like they've been cooked in a microwave." My silence was my way of telling her to simplify what she said. "In other words…" She groaned, turning to me. "He shouldn't even be functioning. That and I can't even figure out who his manufacture is. Even if he was an underground model I'd be able to trace it to it's source." Pushing past me she went over to the sleeping robot, pushing back his long black hair to examine the back of his neck. "He doesn't even have a barcode… just that." She pointed to a blue snowflake tattooed to his skin.

"Congratulations, Zabuza, you've found something that's managed to stump me and my computers." She seemed like she was pissed off as she yanked the USB cord from the robot's ear. I guess it was because she couldn't figure something out for once. The robot sprang to life, quickly leaping from his chair and running to cower behind me.

"So… what do you want me to do with it?" I asked, more than happy to just take him back to where I had found him.

"You can start by giving him a bath- he's filthy."

"Wait, what?!"

"You honestly think I want to put something as interesting as him back out on the streets?" Kuro asked me with a smirk. "You managed to find a treasure among the trash and I'm not going to let you just toss it out because you're afraid of robots."

"I'm not afraid of them," I corrected, probably for the millionth time.

"Sure, sure." Kuro chuckled, sitting back down to stare at her screens. "Anyway, we're keeping it here whether you like it or not, so the least you can do is make it look like we didn't fish it out of the garbage."

"Why can't Mayu do it?"

"Mayu…" Kuro looked to Mayu, who was still blushing like mad about having seen the robot's privates. "...Mayu is shy. And I'm busy. Just do it, or I'll throw you out again." Our angry gazes met for a second, and I knew for a fact she wasn't bluffing. She was notorious for being able to lock me out for days if she kept Mayu in check.

"Fine." I grumbled, taking the robot by the hand and yanking him to the bathroom.

"There's a good boy." Kuro giggled as I left, just loud enough so I could hear. "Got him trained real well."

* * *

"Honestly." I sighed, rubbing shampoo into the now-naked robot's hair. "You can't even bathe yourself. What sort of robot can't even do anything?" I looked down to watch as he reached out, pressing his fingers against the mirror, most likely fascinated and figured there was another robot in front of him.

"That's just glass, there's nothing there." I told him, as if I expected him to understand. "Just a reflection of a stupid robot." He retracted his hand as I rinsed the lathered shampoo from his hair. From behind the wet, tangled locks of hair hanging in his face, his expression almost seemed disappointed and sad. Ignoring it, I reached over for the conditioner, only to find myself grasping at air.

"Damnit, where did Mayu hide the conditioner?" I asked myself, getting up and looking around, leaving the robot to stare sullenly at his reflection. It didn't take long to find the bottle, but by the time I turned around, the robot had stood up and was facing me.

"Hey, I'm not fini-" I began, only to have the rest of what I had to say smothered by lips. I'd never been kissed by a robot, but it was a creepy thing to experience. His lips felt real, but they were freezing cold, like frozen metal. He pressed his naked body against mine as the kiss deepened. I wanted nothing more than to push him away, but for some odd reason I couldn't bring myself to do it. All I could do was stand there stupidly until he seemed satisfied.

"What the hell!?" I shouted, wiping my lips with the back of my hand. The robot didn't seem to realize I was mad and gave me a kind smile in return. And something else.

"My name is Haku." He spoke. "What would you have me do, master?"


	2. Chapter 2

I wasn't sure what to be more surprised about first: the fact that the robot, who had introduced himself as Haku, could talk or that he'd kissed me. At that point, it felt like my brain had stopped, my thoughts chased away by the cold feeling left behind on my lips. Normally, I would have had millions of questions and if I could have processed a single thought I would have at least pushed him farther away from me. But all I did was stand and stare, getting another close up view of his eyes. I could see machinery slowly churning just beyond his synthetic pupil.

"Master Zabuza?" Mayu's voice called from beyond the door. Her voice was kind, but with the way it bounced off the walls and echoed into my ears and with the position I finally realized I had gotten into, it might as well have been demons sent from hell. "I have fresh towels, if you need them." Even though it was a yes or no question, she began to turn the knob to open the door anyway, regardless of my answer.

"Wait!" I shouted, dropping the bottle so I could grasp Haku by the shoulders and try and put some distance between us. Then, like an idiot, I took my first step forward to try and herd him back to his seat only to step on the bottle of conditioner I had just dropped. What took seconds seemed like hours as Mayu opened the door, and she, of all people, got to see the sight that was me hunched over naked and rather confused looking Haku. I didn't even try to explain myself, seeing as I hardly had any time at all before she dropped all the clean towels onto the floor and screamed like she had just walked in on a bloody homicide.

* * *

"So, you don't like robots, but you're all for molesting them, huh?" Kuro asked me with a smirk on her face as she spun around in her chair. "Understandable."

"For the last time, I fell." I groaned, looking to Haku who had his T-shirt back on, thankfully. He only gave me a smile, as if he couldn't read the situation at all.

"Right, fell, conveniently right on top of the robot-"

"Haku." Haku corrected.

"Right, Ha-" Kuro paused. "You can talk!?"

"Yes, I can." Haku said politely, beaming like he was proud of himself over such a simple fact.

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Kuro asked, turning her attention back to me.

"I'm sorry, I was a bit too busy trying to defend myself against the title 'robot molester'." I snorted, although Kuro didn't seem to catch my quip. She was a little too busy closely studying Haku, like his synthetic skin and the fact he was backing away from her like she was a hungry predator bore some sort of explanation. I wasn't about to tell her that somehow his kissing me was what brought about Haku's sudden ability to talk- I don't think that would have helped me in my case.

"Well, now that you can talk, you can answer my questions." Kuro told him. "Who is your manufacture?" Haku answered with silence, a confused look in his eyes. "…Your model?" Again, Haku's expression didn't change. "Your serial number?" Haku remained the same.

"Looks like Haku knows just about as much as you do." I mentioned.

"Nonsense!" Kuro snapped back, Haku's inability to answer her questions obviously pissing her off. Kuro is like that: whenever she encounters something she can't solve, albeit it hardly ever happens, her mood can only get worse and worse until she gets some sort of answer. And usually, I'm the recipient of her rage. "All robots should be aware about the basics of their make up- Who made them, what sort of AI model they are. All this one knows is his name!" I caught Haku lowering his head in shame in the corner of my eye.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, it's just a robot." I told her, though I wasn't sure if I was also telling it to myself as well. Haku was, in fact, just a robot. If he outwardly showed any emotion, all it was was a program. He probably didn't honestly feel guilty or sad about not knowing anything about himself. It was just the emotion his electronic brain figured most people would make in those sorts of situations.

"Just a robot!?" Kuro gasped, like I had just committed some sort of unholy sin.

"Yeah." I told her, turning to my room to signal I was done with arguing over a stupid piece of machinery. "Just a robot." I could hear Kuro grumble something obscene behind my back as she went to sit back down, Mayu quickly attending to her. And something else: small, light footsteps. I turned around just in time to have Haku run into me, to which he gasped and jumped in surprise, taking a step backwards.

"Why are you following me?" I asked him.

"I…I just-" Haku muttered, fumbling for words. "Can…Can I sleep with you, master." Something about being called master by more than one misguided robot struck a nerve.

"I'm not your master, okay?" I told him. "It's just Zabuza." I leaned in close, sounding it out for him. "Za-Bu-Za, got it?"

"Za-Bu-Za." Haku mimicked, a barely audible "beep" echoing from somewhere. "I understand."

"Good," I said turning around, only to feel the tug of him grasping the back of my shirt.

"Can I sleep with you… Zabuza?" Haku repeated. Groaning, I honestly wanted to tell him no. I liked sleeping alone- the time between when I fell asleep and woke up was my favorite simply because it was the point in time where I truly could be alone. I didn't want those few hours of tranquility to be disturbed. But, for some odd reason, I couldn't turn him away for the life of me. Something about the way he asked, the way it sounded when he said my name... It was almost like a way a lover would say it.

"Fine." I finally caved, continuing to travel to my room. "But if you cause me any problems I'm kicking you out." I looked over my shoulder to see if he understood. Haku merely smiled and nodded, not seeming to catch on to the fact I wasn't all too happy about his wanting to sleep with me.

I hardly spent any time in my room, so I didn't find any use in decorating it. I only bothered moving my bed and my bookcase into it when I moved out of my parent's house. It's always been fine with me, though, it's always meant less clean up (which indirectly means less a chance of Mayu ever going into my room for any reason). Simple and orderly, it's how I've always liked things.

"Lonely." Haku's voice broke through the silence between us as I was slipping off my shirt.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"This place…it's lonely." Haku repeated, looking around my room. He had his arms wrapped around himself, like he was cold.

"Does it bother you?" I forced myself to ask.

"No, it's just the one thing I'm positive about." Haku told me, continuing to look about the room. "It's just a familiar feeling." The only thing that probably stood out from what he said was that he had insinuated that he "felt"- that to him, the room "felt" lonely. Taking into account that robots can't honestly feel anything, it was a pretty odd thing for him to say, out of all the things he could have said.

"I'm hardly here, so it doesn't matter." I explained, climbing into my bed. Haku seemed almost mesmerized by the fact my room was so empty, he didn't even seem to realize.

"Hey, didn't you want to sleep with me?" I asked him impatiently.

"Oh, yeah." Haku said, jumping like I had just torn him from a daydream. He quickly walked over, snuggling under the covers like a happy child.

"Comfortable?" I forced myself to ask him, to which he responded with a happy nod. That made one of us, seeing as I wasn't used to having to scoot so close to the wall to make way for an extra person. It was honestly too late to argue or change my mind at that point, it would have probably taken more than simply my effort to untangle him from the sheets and force him out of the bed. So, with a heavy sigh, I lied down, facing away from Haku.

"Goodnight." I said, mostly out of habit.

"Goodnight… Zabuza." Haku whispered back.

Goodnight indeed- I hardly got any sleep at all that night. Moments after we had wished each other a good night Haku insisted he wrap his arms around me and press himself against my back. It was just like when he kissed me, the feeling of him embracing me in his sleep was eerie to me. He felt and acted like anyone else, his skin felt normal and I could feel his chest fall and rise as he breathed. But his whole entire body was like ice. I might as well have been sleeping outside in the snow, underneath my covers being tightly embraced by Haku's freezing body I'm sure the temperatures were the same.

* * *

_"I refuse."_

_"What are you talking about, I'm your master, and you'll do as I say!"_

_"I can't! If I continue, I'll be all alone! I'll be lonely…"_

_"Why do you care? You're a robot, you weren't created to feel, you were created to carry out orders just like all the others!"_

_"Then maybe I don't want to be that kind of robot."_

_"That's impossible, you fool, as long as you are what you are, you'll always be given orders!"_

_"Then I'll find a master who won't give me any…"_

* * *

Haku slowly woke up, his vision starting out pixilated as he slowly started up. The first thing he realized was that Zabuza was no longer in bed with him, and it was an awful first thing to realize. Bolting upright, he scanned the room, even though his eyes weren't 100% in focus yet. His blurry vision only revealed a bookshelf and a window, the light from the outside being choked off by curtains. He was alone- lonely.

"Zabuza!?" He called, stumbling out of bed and assuming the worst. Throwing open the door of the room he ran down the small stretch of hallway, crashing into Mayu who had a pile of folded clothes in her arms.

"AH!" Mayu cried as both of them flew to the floor and clothes scattered about the room.

"What the hell is going on?!" Kuro yelled, looking over her computer to see the two robots sprawled out on the floor surrounded by the wash Mayu had just finished.

"Where is Zabuza!?" Haku asked in a panic, his vision still blurry. Kuro answered with a laugh, sitting back down in her chair.

"The slacker went to school. He had exams today." She explained. "School isn't a bad thing, if you were wondering. He should be back this afternoon." Haku sighed, relieved.

"You shouldn't walk around while your visions system is still booting up, it's dangerous." Mayu moaned, pushing Haku off of her as she sat up. "And now I have to refold all these clothes!"

"I'm sorry." Haku apologized. "I was just afraid Zabuza had gone missing."

"Wow, someone who actually cares about Zabuza, there's something you don't see every day." Kuro laughed to herself while she furiously typed up something.

"Umm… can I help?" Haku asked, reaching for one of the shirts scattered on the floor.

"No, you've done enough." Mayu snapped back, gathering the various garments into her arms. "Just stay still until you can see clearly."

"Okay." Haku silently agreed, doing just that as Mayu picked up the mess he'd caused.

"Mayu, just leave those on the table for later." Kuro called, eyes falling on Haku, who was looking at the floor. "We need a few things from the grocery store, the clothes can wait."

"Huh? Alright…" Mayu agreed, doing as she was told.

"Oh, and bring Haku with you."

"What!?" Mayu exclaimed. "But…but…" Mayu looked at Haku like he was a disgrace. "All he has is that T-shirt!"

"Well, lend him one of your uniforms, he probably has the same figure as you." Kuro told her. Mayu looked at Kuro like she was kidding. "Just do it, Mayu."

"Fine." Mayu grumbled without a second complaint, grabbing Haku carelessly by the collar of his shirt and taking him into Kuro's room.

"Wow." Haku said as the two of them stepped outside.

"Wow about what?" Mayu asked, taking the lead down to the street.

"Everything is covered in white!" Haku exclaimed. To him, everything looked amazing. From the street to the buildings, everything was coated in a blindingly white blanket that glimmered in the early morning sun.

"That's snow, Haku." Mayu explained. "It's just frozen water, and it'll probably melt soon. There's nothing amazing about it."

"Oh." Haku said, his wonderment over the winter scene dissipating.

"Come on, we should get going." Mayu told him, heading down the sidewalk, followed closely by Haku. The entire way there, Haku pointed out anything he found amazing while Mayu explained exactly what it was, dismantling the object's luster.

"Is anything in this place truly amazing?" Haku asked.

"I couldn't tell you," Mayu sighed. "I'm a robot, I can't feel anything myself, so I wouldn't know if something were amazing or not."

"What's stopping you?"

"It's not in my programming, that's all."

The two of them walked in silence for a while, pushing their way through early-morning crowds. But even in the crowds of people, Haku couldn't have felt any lonelier. None of them were his master- none of them were Zabuza.

"Mayu, where is Zabuza's school?" Haku asked while they were stopped at a crosswalk.

"Um... from here it's down in the opposite direction we're going," Mayu told him. "But school won't be out until-" Mayu turned around to see Haku was no longer behind her. "Haku?" She called into the crowed. "Haku, where are you!?"

* * *

I felt exhausted by the end of my last class, I didn't even bother lifting my head up from the table as everyone else filed out. As if I didn't like school enough, the fact Haku had kept me up all night had only added to it all.

I hardly ever attended school at that point, only to take important exams. All it was other than that was a bunch of professors spewing out things we learned in high school. That and I hadn't even figured out what I wanted to study- everything that was offered at the school seemed just as boring and pointless as general ed. The whole system was too overcomplicated and cluttered and I honestly didn't see the point in putting any effort into something that was so confusing.

"Zabuza!" A voice called out from the hallway. I looked up to see Suigetsu, probably the only person who actually bothered to talk to me in the entire school.

"What?" I shouted back, not bothering to get up out of my chair.

"There's a cute girl outside in the courtyard who says she's waiting for you!" He said, excitedly. That was enough to throw me out of my chair. Mayu never waited for me to walk me home and Kuro wouldn't give a damn.

"Shit!" I hissed, grabbing my things and pushing past Suigetsu. Emerging into the courtyard I looked around, and it wasn't long until I found him, waiting by the front gates of the school… in a maid uniform. I tried sneaking away, but even with all of the other people around me, Haku managed to catch me in his sights.

"Zabuza!" He called happily, running toward me.

"Haku, what are you doing here?!" I shouted, flinching just in case he planned on giving me a hug after having taken the running start. But instead he quickly brought himself to a halt a few steps away from me.

"I've been waiting for you!" He told me, a wide grin on his face.

"For how long!?" I asked, looking around. Something about talking to a girly looking robot in a maid uniform embarrassed me, and I wanted to get out of the campus as fast as I could before anyone pointed it out.

"Since…" Haku paused, looking thoughtful. "This morning, I think."

"What?" I palmed my face. He'd been waiting there for not just a few minuets, but hours!? "Haku, you don't have to wait that long… in fact you shouldn't."

"But…" Haku said, looking hurt. "I was lonely…"

"How in the world could you feel-"

"Excuse me," A voice interrupted. "Might you be Momochi Zabuza?" I turned around to see a young boy who wore the uniform of a prestigious high school nearby, though he didn't even look old enough to be out of elementary school. His skin was deathly pale and purple-ish scars marked the inner edges of both of his eyes. It was understandable that I thought he was some sort of ghost at first glance, had it not have been for the taller man standing behind him, dressed head to toe in a fancy butler's uniform.

"Um… yeah, that's me."

"My name is Orochimaru, founder of Oto robotics." I knew that brand, Kuro never seemed to shut up about it. They mostly manufactured high end robots that worked as maids, butlers and models for modeling agencies. I just didn't expect the company's head to be so young. "And I might have some answers about your robot, Haku."


	3. Chapter 3

Orochimaru hardly explained anything to us in public. After peeking my interest, he simply motioned the two of us to his limo that suddenly pulled up at the front gate, as if the driver had been waiting for Orochimaru to give some sort of signal. And as I followed behind him, it was almost as if I was following behind royalty, by the way everyone looked at him and quickly took no time in stepping out of his way. Part of me wanted to walk closer behind him, hoping to look just as important and regal myself.

We were quickly led into the back seat, and the moment the doors closed Orochimaru began to speak even before I had time to breath.

"You've come into quite an amazing little toy." He began, pressing the tips of his fingers together, looking at Haku with an amused stare. Haku merely looked back at him blankly, probably just as confused as I was.

"I wouldn't call him amazing." I corrected.

"Hmm?" Orochimaru smirked, standing up. Even in the insides of the limo, he was short enough that he could stand upright. Taking a step toward Haku he gently cupped his chin, examining his dole-like face with a child-like curiosity, but at the same time his sickly pale yellow eyes seemed to already know more than the both of us. "I guess a toy isn't amazing if you're too closed minded to take it out of it's box."

"Excuse me?" It's one thing to be called close-minded. It's a whole other thing to be called the same thing by someone much younger than you.

"Tell me, Zabuza, do you remember the day all of Uchiha Corp.'s models suddenly crashed?" He asked me, continuing to gently stroke Haku's features with his pale fingers. Haku looked uncomfortable, like he wanted to pull away, but continued to stay still and allowed himself to be observed.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with-"

"It was devastating, wasn't it? People world-wide were in a panic for months, having lost the one thing they relied on so much. I always wondered to myself, 'how could someone bring themselves to do such a thing?'. And then I think 'such a thing isn't humanly possible'."

I remained silent, figuring he would just cut me off again.

"No human can single-handedly do such a thing. Such a feat isn't possible," Orochimaru continued, finally taking his fingers off of Haku's face. Why did I feel relieved about it? "The only way to destroy such a large number of advanced robots is with something more highly advanced than them- simply put, another robot."

"Another robot…?" I looked to Haku, who looked to me like he was worried, almost frightened. "Are you suggesting Haku is responsible for taking out an entire AI super system?" There was no possible way. Someone… something like Haku was much too kind and innocent to do something so sinister. He couldn't even speak until hours ago, let alone destroy an entire robotics company.

"I could." Orochimaru said, sitting back down. "I may even be jumping a gun at the opportunity to find such a device. But still, I'm not going to throw away a chance, no matter how far-fetched it seems." He laughed, although I hardly understood what was so funny. "The idea of a robot being the reason for Uchiha Corp.'s downfall started as a rumor on the Internet, and it was a rumor I viciously followed. Over time, the community that discussed it began to uncover more and more evidence that such an object existed.

"Although after all this time I've begun to start losing hope, which is probably why I jumped at the idea when your roommate left a message for the world to see about a mysterious robot her friend had suddenly found: a robot that manages to function without the basic parts and files. Nothing but a pretty little shell full of useless and cryptic data not even her super computers could solve, that moves around and speaks- even has a frighteningly human-like personality. A simple run-of-the-mill robot couldn't accomplish anything like that. Haku is definitely a higher breed."

"So, what do you want?" I asked him impatiently. "Do you want Haku, because I'll gladly give him to-" Haku gasped, clutching my arm and pulling it so hard I feared it had been yanked right out of its' socket. I was in pain now, but I hardly saw any merit out of getting angry with him. That and the almost lifelike look of sadness was heavy in his eyes.

"It seems Haku has already chosen you as his master." Orochimaru laughed- whether it was at the situation or my pain, I don't know. "No, but I think we can work together to solve this little snowflake's mystery and find out if it's a destructive power that makes him so unique."

I had half the mind to turn his offer down. Something about figuring out if Haku could do such terrible things didn't seem right to me. But, at the same time, I was trying my hardest not to care. So what if Haku could destroy other robots from the inside out- it's not as if I would be effected at all.

"And how exactly do you expect to do that?" Haku looked at me with surprise, fingers still tightly wrapped around my arm. I couldn't help but feel I had said something wrong. But Orochimaru beamed, as if I'd said all the right things.

"Well, we can't say anything for sure, but I would assume most of his secrets are locked within his missing memory chip." Orochimaru explained. "It would be best to look around where you found him, maybe it's around there." I felt my stomach turn at the thought of willingly going back to the slums to search for something. "The sooner we find it, the sooner Haku's full abilities will be at our finger tips." He displayed a toothy grin that sent a shiver up my spine. I felt sort of ashamed that a child could creep me out like he had.

"I can't promise I'll find it at all." I told him, wanting nothing more to get out of his wild goose chase. "I found Haku in the slums, and they aren't exactly the best place to be, let alone somewhere where you can easily locate things."

"Well, do what you can." He told me, still grinning. The car suddenly jerked and the door was quickly opened, revealing my apartment. "I'm very busy these days, holiday rush and all. That and I have a reputation to uphold, I can't be seen anywhere near that dump on my hands and knees. And you don't need to find it right away. I can be very patient, especially when it means such an awesome power will finally be uncovered."

Haku tugged at my arm, trying to coax me to follow him out of the limo. Orochimaru chuckled at this, but didn't say another word. His message had been delivered and he surely wouldn't want to waste a single word on someone below him. I didn't need another reason to leave the limo.

"Oh, and Zabuza." Orochimaru added. "If you agree to do this, it's important not to get attached to Haku. He's a robot anjd everything from the loving looks he gives you to his gentle caresses are all artificial. All he is, in theory, is a tool of destruction, and having something like that occupy a space in your heart isn't wise at all." And before I could defend myself and say that I would never let that happen, the car door closed in my face and the limo quickly drove away.

"I don't like him." Haku stated plainly. "He seems so familiar to me, and I hate it." Turning to him I could see Haku was at it again, imitating human characteristics to absolute perfection as he looked at the ground like he had just been defiled, arms tightly wrapped around himself. "So… familiar."

"Common." I told him, trying to ignore the urge to want to comfort him in some way. I repeated "he's a robot" over and over in my head, as if it were some sort of religious holy chant. I led the way up the stairs, not even bothering to wait for the sound of Haku quickly following after me.

"Welcome back, mas-" Mayu began her usual lighthearted greeting as I walked through the door. But before the dreaded "M" word passed through her lips I shot a glare at her, which worked, just as I had planned. She was a robot after all; she was programmed to stop what she was doing if her "master" didn't find it pleasing… in this case, calling me her "master".

"Well?" Kuro asked expectantly, standing up from her chair, lifting an eyebrow.

"Well what?"

"Don't be stupid, Zabuza, what did the great Orochimaru have to say about Haku?" She asked me, leaning over her keyboard. Her voice sounded like she didn't care and was just casually asking, but her eyes gave away that she was excited- and at the same time envious that I got to meet her idol before her. It took every inch of will not to smirk about it.

"It's really none of your business," I finally decided to say. I would have told her more, but telling her that had the largest chance of pissing her off, and I couldn't help myself. And I could tell I had hit the exact mark, since, when Kuro is really mad, she doesn't yell or scream: she gets dead quiet and glares at you. And in the blue glow of her computer screens, her angry look looked all the more sinister.

"He was just a creepy little kid." I continued, adding the final little jab before walking to my room, Haku tagging along behind me. It had hardly been a day, but already I was used to hearing an extra set of footsteps half a step behind mine. Maybe I was growing a little bit too used to it.

_"Having something like that occupy a space in your heart isn't wise at all"_

The words echoed in my head, and I couldn't help but feel he was right. The longer Haku stayed, the harder it would be to let him go- the more I would become used to the idea of having a robot... The more feelings I would have towards a robot.

I pulled by bedroom door open only half way before closing it again. I still had a few more hours of daylight left- just enough time to at least get started in my search: the little needle in the haystack that would get Haku out of my hair and the chance that I could open my heart to a robot off of my chest.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Kuro asked, confused as to why I was leaving again.

"Again, none of your business." I chuckled, swinging the door closed before Kuro could say anything.

"Where _ARE_ we going?" Haku asked as we walked back down to the street.

"To the slums." I told him. "The sooner I find that stupid chip, the sooner I can get back to my normal life."

"You… want to get rid of me?" Haku asked in a sad tone. Groaning, I stopped and turned to him, making sure not to look into his eyes that I'm sure were big and sad, like a puppy.

"Look…" I began, but I didn't know how to start. All I wanted to tell him was yes, I did want to get rid of him. I wanted things to go back to normal, but now I had been thrown into this big robotics conspiracy, all the while having an all-too-life-like robot shoved onto me. The only way to get back to the way things used to be- back to my simple life of avoiding school and having things boil down to being simple again- would be to get rid of the thing that started it all. But, for some reason, all I could fathom was a pathetic sounding "look…" and then an awkward silence. It didn't help that people who passed us pointed us out, whispering something about a couple.

"…Never mind." I finally muttered, turning back around and heading in the direction of the slums. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be in a hurry to get to such a crappy part of town. "Let's just go and find your-" I felt a tug as ice-cold fingers grasped my gloveless hand. It sent a shiver up my spine. "What now?"

"The last time we walked together you held my hand all the way, right?" Haku asked, tilting his head.

"That was different, I-" I shook my head.

'You're about to throw him away, you might as well give him what he wants' I thought to myself.

"Fine, common." I sighed, pulling at his arm.

The entire walk to the slums my stomach was queasy from nerves. I like to keep a cool exterior, but I'm somewhat of a coward. The slums aren't a place I just take an afternoon stroll through. That and, despite what I thought about the sun, clouds had begun to cover it up, only allowing a few rays of fleeting golden light through, and they didn't exactly touch down in the part of town we were wandering into.

We were greeted first by what I call the welcome wagon, which consist of a bunch of people begging you for spare change, even out near the edge of town people were doing their obscure holiday shopping. And with the new crowd of people came a large crowed of ill-kept, unshaven, sickly-looking street dwellers, rasping through their rotten teeth and chapped lips for any money we or anyone else could spare them. They weren't the scariest part of the slums, so I easily managed to weave through them without a passing glance, though Haku spared each of them a big doe-eyed stare, as if to say sorry, he didn't even have underwear, let alone money to give them all. I guess he couldn't help it, it's a robots job to follow orders, and with that many people asking for change, I'm sure he was having some sort of sad panic attack he couldn't meet their needs.

The more frightening part of the slums was when the streets became narrow- too narrow for cars and almost too narrow for two people walking side by side. Brushing shoulders with the people who drifted through there wasn't a pleasant thing. Prostitutes casting needy and come hither glances, other tall and shifty men giving you the exact opposite, the kind you expect to be followed by and take a knife out on you. The only lights that lit the streets of the slums are dim lights outside the buildings there, or at least of the ones that are meant for people to walk into. It's a very unwelcome place for a clean looking guy being followed by a girly robot in a maid uniform.

"I think I found you around here." I told Haku in a low voice pointing to an even narrower alleyway. I said that, but I was nowhere close to even walking down the thing. It was pitch black and the stench of rotting garbage leaked from it, or at least I like to assume it was the smell of garbage. It was just about inviting as the rest of the slums, if not more so.

"We don't have to find it." Haku told me, pulling on my arm again. "We can forget about it, and I can stay with you and you can be my master." Leave it to Haku to give me motivation enough to drive me into a pitch black, questionable alleyway. Yanking my arm away from him, I began walking into the darkness alone while Haku remained right outside its' reaches.

"I don't want to be lonely." He squeaked, almost like he was holding back tears. His sad voice bounced off the walls that surrounded me, the same, sad sentence being repeated over and over again. It assaulted my eardrums and it had about the same effect as someone screaming into my ear.

"Just shut up." I finally told him angrily. Luckily it was dark enough I didn't see his face- the face that could change my resolve flawlessly. "I don't WANT to be your master and I LIKE being on my own. I don't need you tagging along behind me, don't need you waiting for me at school, don't need you crowding my bed at night...!" I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself. The last thing I wanted was to attract attention from the people in the slums with my yelling. "I don't need _YOU_." I turned back to the darkness of the alleyway, only to get more frustrated. It was a tiny little chip- I was wasting my time looking for it in the dark.

"Common, we'll come back when it's light." I grumbled, passing Haku who was glued to where he was. Ignoring my better judgment I looked over to him to see why he hadn't gone to following close behind. His mouth hung open, like there was something he wanted to say on the tip of his tongue, his eyes were wide in shock… and something else- something that caught the dim, orange glow of the lacking light that worked as a leading line to his eyes: tears. Needless to say I was baffled. It was all a program, it was all just an illusion. Robots can cry, they can be programmed to cry. You fill up a small section behind their eyes with liquid like you would a car with windshield wiper fluid. It was a simple, mechanic copy of an actual human trait. But coming from Haku, just like everything else, it was all too real.

"Hey, I said common." I repeated, only to get no response in return. Sighing I walked over, grabbing his hand, but when I pulled I might as well have been trying to move a mountain. Haku refused to budge.

"You don't want me." Haku finally sobbed. "Nobody wants me."

"That's not true." I had reached a new low: I was trying to comfort a machine. "Orochimaru wants-"

"He doesn't want ME!" Haku interrupted. "He just wants what I can do." Sniffling he reached up to wipe his tears away with his sleeve. "Nobody truly wants me…for me." We shared yet another awkward silence, one of many in our ever growing collection.

"Look, I don't want you, but what I don't want is to leave you out here alone." I told him. "Just come home with me and we'll try again tomorrow." Haku remained rooted to where he was at first before finally gripping my hand back and letting himself be pulled along. And even though he was willingly following me, it still felt like I was trying to pull a very heavy load. The gentle feeling of his cold hand wrapped around mine felt like it weighed a ton.

Any thought process that would have followed was cut off as we passed by the slums welcome wagon again, their beggings for change drowned out by a loud cry that hurt my ears and sent everyone in the area into a panic.

A gunshot.

Everyone soon became a confused and frightened swarm trying to push past each other and run away from where the bullet had come from. I stood very still at first, watching it all happen. People pushing others down, screaming, running in every direction- it amazed me how quickly it all had become disorganized.

It took a while to actually hit me that I should do the same, but as soon as I began to take my first steps into the terrified mass of people, a second gunshot rang through the air, then a third. Each time, the crowd seemed to become more and more chaotic and their screams seemed to grow louder. I expected the pain that had suddenly bloomed in my side to be that someone had shoved me out of their way at first in their frantic escape, but as it grew and sent me to my knees I knew it definitely wasn't the case. And, at first, I felt perfectly awake, but as each second passed, everyone's noises of panic and fear started to sound further and further away, diluting and mixing together as they grew more and more distant.

And the last thing I heard was a voice piercing the air, calling my name.

"Zabuza!"


	4. Chapter 4

_"Haku? Is that my name?"_

"Yes, a fitting name for a machine like you. White… Pure."

"What would you have me do, master?"

"Exactly what you were programmed to do: purify this world"

"And then?"

"What do you mean 'and then'? That's all you were made to do, and once we're through with you, we'll no longer need you."

"Will you give me to another master then?"

"No- no one can have you. As long as you exist, no one will be able to be your master."

"Zabuza!" A voice echoed in my ears as I came to. I could hear the steady beat of my heart in my ears as well, the dull pounding growing fainter and fainter as my blurred vision became clear. I came to find Haku looking down on me with tear and panic-filled eyes, distant whispers calling out from behind him. It was his voice that I had heard.

"Zabuza!" He cried out again. I could feel his ice hold hand tightly holding my own, tightening his grip as he repeated my name. Again, smaller, distance voices mingled with his own somewhere from the dimly lit room.

"Ha-" I began, only to have a sharp pain from my side cut me off. Memories from before I fell unconscious came back to me- the gunshot, Haku screaming my name. Trying to put together the pieces of the confusing puzzle before me, I clutched at my side, coming to find someone had poorly dressed what I assumed to be a wound with thin bandages and tape.

"Zabuza!" Hake called again, this time more relieved, bringing his face closer to mine, further concealing the background I wanted to see for myself. Instead, all I saw were his mechanical eyes, machinery just barely visible enough to creep me out behind the artificial lens. Small gears and lights danced excitedly from behind them, seeming just as happy to see I was awake as Haku.

"Good, it looks like your new "master" is awake." Came a cold, raspy voice. Haku turned his face away from mine, giving a barbed glare at whoever had spoken as he held his arms out wide.

"Don't hurt Zabuza!" He commanded harshly. But even with his surprisingly angry tone, the person to whom he was speaking merely laughed heartily at him.

"We have no intention of hurting him," The voice explained. "On the contrary we need him… well, for the time being, anyway." Curiosity overcoming pain I slowly pushed myself upright, leaning against the wall behind me. The needles of pain from my side blinded me for a short moment, but when I finally caught a glimpse of the person from over Haku's shoulder I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Before us stood a tall, older man, scruffy black hair reaching past his shoulders and covering his face. Despite that, the thick bangs weren't enough to shroud the manic smirk and the red eyes staring back at me with amusement. Dressed head to toe in expensive business clothes was Madara Uchiha, the former president of Uchiha Corp., the long dead robotics company. For a man who had lost everything since the mysterious shutdown of every model his company had to their name, he seemed like he was on top of the world.

"What?" Was all I could say. His appearance only seemed to drown the confusing situation deeper into the depths of mystery.

"What, indeed." He chuckled, walking over to us with a slight limp, his stiff right leg supported by a cane. "I figured a bright, young man like yourself would have put the pieces together by now. I guess I overestimated you." Haku seemed to stiffen as he drew near, sliding backward on his knees closer and closer to me, still in full human-shield mode. I'd only knew Haku for a day at that point but I knew Haku wasn't the kind to distrust and outwardly loathe a stranger so much, as was evident from our meeting with Orochimaru. These two seemed to have some sort of history- a history that Haku clearly hated.

"Are you finally happy, Haku?" He asked Haku with a sneer. "Happy you finally found a master who refuses to give you orders?" Haku seemed to flinch, but whatever he meant went way over my head. "How ironic, you finally find him and he wants to get rid of you." Haku opened his mouth to make some sort of comeback, but all he retaliated with was a pained silence. Madara laughed again, holding his side with his free hand.

"And now, he finally has a chance to do just that." His crimson orbs settled back down on me, sending a shiver up my spine that almost made me forget the enormous pain I was suffering through. "I'm sorry, I had hoped my underlings would bring you back unharmed, I guess I should have been more specific than 'alive'." He snorted, my obvious suffering seeming to amuse him. "But that aside, you should be overjoyed. I'm here to take this troublesome little robot off your hands."

"Why…why do you want Haku?" I finally managed to force out, each word sending shockwaves of white-hot pain all through me. Cringing, I awaited his explanation.

"Because, Haku belongs to me." Madara explained. "He's a tool created only to cleanse mankind of the taint that is artificial intelligence, and should only be in the hands of his rightful master."

"Wait, that means that-" I exclaimed, the whole thing seeming to sound more and more like a work of fiction. "Why would you destroy your own robots!?"

"Every robot is a mistake. They've altered human kind, but instead of how I had intended them to, they have sent us souring in an entirely different direction. Slowly, they're doing more and more for their masters, slowly turning humans into a bunch of dependents having every little chore done for them. Instead of helping mankind evolve, they're allowing us to regress, and are doing so with a smile. This was not what I had envisioned when I began creating these…" Madara's eyes wandered over to Haku, gracing him with an icy stare. "these…things."

"But why didn't you-"

"Why didn't I what? By the time I realized my mistake, the world seemed to run on robotics. I couldn't have simply made a public statement for a good majority of the human population to throw out the machines that were making their lives easier. It would have been like talking to a cage full of confused monkeys. The only way to keep the sickness from progressing any further would be to rid the world of the poison myself.

"And that's when I began making Haku: a robot who slowly became too smart for his own good. In making him, I was careless, just as I had been when I first unleashed these abominations onto the world. In giving him enough power to wipe out millions of advanced pieces of technology, I, in turn, also gave him a near human-like personality, so much he began to make decisions for himself, his more fatal decision being aborting his mission just as his powers has wiped out every machine my factories has unleashed, ripping out his own memory chip and fleeing."

I looked at Haku in disbelief, who was still stationed in front of me, arms still held outward, but head hung low in shame.

"But thanks to you, I got my first lead as to where Haku was, and since then I have been tracking you down. It took a bit of work, that Orochimaru brat isn't quick to leak his personal business. Just goes to show if you put a person in enough pain, they'll tell you just about anything."

"What did you do to Orochimaru!?" I angrily asked.

"Should you care?" Madara asked back. "Should you care about any of this? A few days ago, if you had caught wind of a robotics specialist being beaten to a pulp, you would have turned the other cheek and continued on your way. If you heard about an amazingly lifelike robot who could function without the basic makeup of any robot, you wouldn't have cared to listen to the entire story. And look at where you are now, up to your ears in worry and care for something you used to hardly give a second thought about."

I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to live in the delusion that the appearance of Haku hadn't changed me, but in the back of my mind, I knew what Madara was saying was true.

"I can make this all go away, you know? You can go back to the way things were. It's quite simple, really." Madara explained. Haku jumped, looking back at me with a look that begged not to be thrown away, and even more so as I turned away and continued to listen to Madara's cruel proposition. "My little Haku may not like to take orders he doesn't want, but considering how attached to you he is, he will more than gladly do whatever you say."

"Why don't you just take him yourselves?"

"It's not all that simple, Haku has made a… well I guess you could call it a sacred master and servant bond with you, and even if we did take him from you and forced the memory chip back into his mechanical brain, he wouldn't do a thing of what we said." Memories of the kiss from the day I had brought him home, battered and broken from the slums, flooded my mind. "But, if you just give him the command, he'll leave your side and resume his duties as a tool of destruction quite willingly."

"Zabuza, please-" Haku pleaded.

"Just one command, and you'll be free."

"I don't want to be alone-"

The two of them went back and forth, presenting me with their cases. Haku, begging me to reconsider, and Madara, dangling the life I had lived and enjoyed long before Haku forced himself into my life above me, just withing my reach.

"Please, I'll do anything!" Haku begged, turning around and resting his hands on my shoulders, ice cold hands clutching at me desperately. I wanted to rid myself of it- the chilling grasp Haku had over me that only tightened with every doe-eyed look he threw my way and every kind word. Ice cold hands pulled me away from my old life and my old ideals. "Anything!"

"Haku." I finally spoke. Hearing me speak his name, he looked relieved, figuring I had chosen to steal him away from his fate of loneliness and isolation. "I'm sorry, but I can't continue being your 'master'. You belong to Madara, you always have." Using the wall behind me I stood, freeing myself from his grip, although on unsteady legs. I also didn't want to be at level with him where I could see his artificial eyes well up with tears in attempt to change my painful resolve, even if it did mean that it would feel like someone was stabbing me over and over again in the side.

"There, see, everything should go back to the way they were." Madara smirked triumphantly. He limped over to Haku's side, reaching down to run his fingers through his raven hair. "All is as it should be." Suddenly, two suited men materialized from the darker corners of the room. "They'll escort you out." Madara briefly explained, his gaze remaining on a devastated Haku. Without another word to either Madara or Haku, I walked, with some difficulty, over to them. I wanted nothing more than to finally escape- to leave all of the madness behind and grasp at reality again. But as I passed Haku I couldn't help but notice- not that he was sobbing or sniffling. In fact he was absolutely silent and still, not even gracing me with a final glance. As I had commanded, he belonged to Madara. To him, I wasn't anyone special anymore. I wasn't anyone to cry over anymore.

The two men in suits led me through a few, dark hallways until they practically shoved me out into an alleyway. The first few rays of daylight were painting the dark sky. Everywhere I looked was drenched in a thin, morning fog, as well as a silence so quiet it made my ears ring. I stood stupidly in the alleyway before my condition finally caught up with me, my legs nearly giving out from under me as I caught myself on a nearby garbage can.

I was free- finally free from everything. I was finally on my own again, no cold hand tugging me back, no soft voice echoing in my head. I was free.

But at that moment, as I regained my balance and turned my gaze up to the sliver of pale morning sky that I could see, something inside of me expected and almost wanted that same freezing hand to reach out and take mine and a shy voice to say, "The last time we walked together you held my hand all the way, right?"

It caught me off guard that Kuro was worried I had been gone all night. Kuro always struck me as the person who wouldn't give a shit if I disappeared for a week during a nuclear war. I guess the fact I fell to my knees and was bleeding through the poorly applied bandages dressing my gunshot wound had something to do with the fact she bothered to get up from her seat and run to my side, Mayu close behind her.

"What the fuck Zabuza, where were you?" She asked, turning to tell Mayu to get the first aid kit. She frantically agreed, tripping over her own feet as she rushed to go find it.

"And you care, because?" I asked her with a shortness of breath. Kuro sighed, frustrated, but for once didn't snap back.

"If your useless roommate came back from doing god knows what all night with a giant gash in their side, you'd care, too." Kuro explained, carefully taking off the bandages. "Where's Haku?" I remained silent for a moment, searching for the right words to explain what I had just done.

"I gave him away." I finally told her. I've never seen her get so upset so fast. She suddenly looked like I had just punched her in the face.

"Gave him away?! To whom?!" She yelled.

"To his rightful owner," I told her, like it was common knowledge. "I didn't want him from the start anyway, things are best for both of us this way." Needless to say, I was utterly surprised speechless as Kuro slapped me with all her might across the face. It was enough to help me forget about the pain from my bleeding injury in my side, to give a good idea about just how much power she had put into it.

"You heartless monster!?" She shrieked. I looked up at her, just curious to see what her face looked like at such a high level of rage. "Haku cared about you! I've never seen a robot care about someone so much as him, and you just toss him out because…because…" It looked like she was about to burst into tears, the way her face was scrunched up and how she was stumbling to find just the right insults. "AUGH! I hope you die alone!" With her last jab of a closing statement, she got up and left my side, all compassion and worry about my coming home with a bleeding gash in my side gone.

"Ah…Um… Ma-" Mayu stood above me, gingerly holding the first aid box. "May I?" I wasn't about to tell her she wasn't aloud to properly dress my wound, so I gave her a nod. Lucky for me, I had the luck of being able to focus on the pain radiating from my face while she stitched me up. After she was through I sat in silence for a moment. I could feel Kuro's hateful gaze glaring at me from between her multiple monitors, and also Mayu's who stared down at me with concern. I couldn't blame Mayu, I was sure Kuro had yet to program her for such a thing and how to register appropriate emotions in accordance to it.

Sighing, the heavy weight of both their gazes drove me from the room. The pain in my side and my face had begun subsiding and numbing away, replacing itself with a heavy, exhausted feeling. I needed to sleep all of this off, like a bad dream. But as my body hit my bed, even though I yearned to give myself to sleep, I couldn't even close my eyes. Something… something seemed wrong. Off.

Had my bed always felt so empty- so large?

Rolling over I looked at the empty space beside me. He'd only occupied the space for a night, but I had instinctively pressed myself close to the wall, as if to make room for him. Him… no, it! Groaning I sat up, drawing my legs close. Why was it so hard to forget about Haku? All he was, was a troublesome robot, nothing more. A clingy, confused, annoying machine…

A machine I carelessly threw away.

Muttering angrily, I rested my head on my pillow again, trying to focus on something- anything- that would keep my mind off Haku. The tiny patterns in my wall, the sound of traffic slowly growing quieter as the night progressed, Kuro crying…

Kuro crying?

Normally, I would just leave her be. She had just bashed my face with every inch of her might, the last thing I would normally do would be to show her an inch of compassion. But something didn't seem right as I listened on. She sounded panicked- frantic- the usual soft and worried voice of Mayu trying to make sense of Kuro's outburst all but existent. I pried my eyes open and staggered out of bed and down the hallway, coming face to face with Kuro holding the limp body of Mayu in her arms, her form weakly hanging from her embrace like a stuffed doll.

"Zabuza!" Kuro sobbed, looking up at me with desperation, like I would know what was wrong. "Mayu… Mayu collapsed! I don't know what's wrong with her, everything seems fine!" She turned back to Mayu, futzing around with the complicated looking machinery exposed by an opening Kuro had opened up on the side of her head. Averting my eyes I was soon overcome by remorse. I knew exactly what was wrong with Mayu, and soon to be every working robot on the planet.

Haku.

There wasn't any time to console Kuro- no time to explain as I burst through my door and out into the cold of the evening. I had been selfish. All I cared about was my own happiness. But looking at Kuro and watching her melt down over her precious creation, I realized that no one would be able to just move on like I could. They weren't just robots to them. To them, people like Kuro, they might as well be people as well, and I was about to have all their grieving heavily hanging on my shoulders.

Cold bit and stung my jacketless body, but I didn't care. The only thing I noticed were people on the street, kneeling down beside their own robots, confused and panicked looks mirroring Kuro's as they tried to assess what was happening. I was the one who caused this, now I had to be the one to stop it- to stop Haku.

Zigzagging my way through streets and ally ways, I followed the path I had stumbled through before- the direction of the place I had abandoned Haku still fresh in my mind with my senses heightened by the cold.

Arriving at the metal door in the alleyway I had been tossed out into, I hardly took the time to catch my breath or to think to myself what dangers awaited me behind it. I hardly took the time to think about my safety as I threw all my weight onto the cold handle, which to my surprise turned without trouble and sent me flying forward into the dark corridor. My heaving breaths echoed through the darkness as I caught myself and regained balance. Taking a few seconds to let my eyes adjust to the darkened hallway, a low, booming sound reached my ears, like the sound of machinery slowly rumbling to life. It seemed to assault my ears in all directions; I had no way of knowing where it was coming from. But nonetheless, I propelled myself forward again with tired legs into the blackness. Even in my lost state, I'd be nowhere closer to Haku by standing around like an idiot.

I sharply turned corners and threw myself down stairways, randomly choosing my path as the booming noise grew louder, to the point where I could feel vibrations underneath my feet with each, quick step. Eventually, a dim blue glow lit the end of the corridor I had flung my self around.

"Haku!" I gasped, picking up my pace. He had to be there- the loud mechanic sound hurt my ears now.

Refusing once again to halt and try and come up with some sort of plan past "run blindly forward", I rushed into the room, greeted by a blinding blue light, and then the feeling of having both my arms restrained. Squinting, I could hardly make out people in the room as exhaustion caught up to me. My legs ached and my arms felt heavy. I could hardly put up any sort of feeble attempt to free myself.

"Something told me you would come back," A familiar voice hissed. A figure stepped forward, becoming clearer as they drew nearer. "Trying to play the hero and save all those hunks of scrap mental."

"Madara…" I growled, panting. Smirking, he grasped my chin with ice-cold fingers, forcing my head upward so we were face to withered face.

"It seems your act of selflessness is a bit too late, though," He laughed, stepping aside and forcing me to look at the blinding light. It stung, even worse than staring into the sun, but once I made out another figure floating in the blue glow I couldn't look away. There was Haku, blankly looking down on all of us, surrounded by light like a god- a cruel god about to eliminate every single one of his own kind.

"Beautiful, isn't he?" Madara asked me. "Bathed in that glow, accessing his true power. It's amazing something so delicate and pure could destroy so much." Madara looked up at Haku with some sort of sick admiration. "It's too bad, even with all his potential, after tonight he won't have a purpose at all. Even as the last robot on earth, he'll be nothing but walking scrap mental."

Madara continued to gloat on about his beautiful creation; the sudden movement of Haku's lips tore my attention, as he mouthed something over the boom. His eyes were dark and lifeless, he made no move to resist what he was doing, but what he seemed to say shouted that the Haku I had come to know was somewhere in that metal shell.

Za-Bu-Za.

I cut off Madara mid sentence with an angry shout as I called upon every inch of strength to break free of his bodyguard's tight grip on me. Freeing myself, I lunged at Haku, wrapping my arms around his form. His body was hot and if felt like I was embracing a hot stove. It burned my skin and a white-hot pain like I was being engulfed in flames soon consumed me. Beyond the vivid burning sensation, I could hear the angry voices behind me as furious hands tried to pry me off. Something inside me desperately wanted to let go, instinct screaming at me to separate myself from the object causing me such pain. But the last time I did such a thing, it didn't do me any good anyway. I remained tightly latching onto Haku.

"Haku!" I shouted. "Please, you have to stop this! Haku!" The booming continued to grow and the light around us seemed to grow brighter, even through my closed eyelids. "HAKU!"

Suddenly, it was as if I had awoken from a dream. The loud booming sound had disappeared completely, leaving my ears ringing. The light that had engulfed the two of us suddenly had vanished; leaving me and Haku floating in a dark, empty space. The burning, too, had vanished, leaving the familiar, cold feeling of Haku's synthetic skin behind as I felt a single arm wrap itself around me.

"Thank…you…" Haku's voice weakly whispered, his voice echoing all around us. "For…coming back…Zabuza."

"Haku, you need to stop this!" I told him. "You did it once before, you can surely do it again!"

"I can…" He paused, looking down with a sad, unsure look. "But the process has progressed far too much for me to escape in one piece." He waited for me to answer, but I couldn't find words to express the weight of my high hopes slowly fading away. "If I stop the process, my body will be torn apart. But all the robots I have rendered useless will be operable again."

"There has to be another way! There has to-" Haku gently rested his hand on my cheek, smiling as if nothing was wrong.

"There's a slim chance a small part of me will remain. My synthetic brain may be able to survive me aborting the destruction process…" He leaned in closer, looking deeply into my eyes. For the first time, I couldn't see the mechanics busily working behind his lenses- his eyes seemed just as normal as mine. "If it does make it… I want you to rebuild me, Zabuza."

"But-"

"Promise me you'll bring me back," Haku said, as the familiar feeling of having my flesh burned began to return. "Promise!"

"…I promise, Haku." I finally said, as the loud booming sound also began to slowly reach my ears again. "I'll bring you back for sure!"

"Thank you, Zabuza." Haku said, his final words being drowned out by rumbling as the blinding light engulfed the both of us.

"I'll bring you back!" I shouted over the growing noise. "And when I do, I'll let you sleep in my bed, and meet me after school! And I'll let you call me master again!" The roaring noises around us were so loud, I could hardly hear what I said, but by the look in Haku's eyes I knew what I said had reached him.

* * *

"It was the craziest thing!" Someone shouted as they passed the classroom Zabuza was in. He looked up from his notes he had just taken to listen in. "The Uchiha model we had in storage came back to life like nothing was wrong!"

"Yeah, the same night all the other models crashed, right?" Another said as they passed to open door. "The same with mine. It just sprang to life and began work like it normally had, no bugs or anything!" The two of them announced in unison how weird it was and were drowned out by the other voices in the hallway, all talking about the strange phenomenon that was the sudden crash a few weeks ago and then the reboot of all the models including the Uchiha ones. No one had brought up the arrest of Madara Uchiha, though. Aside from Zabuza, his apprehension was kept a very tight secret from the public.

Zabuza chuckled to himself, like the whole thing was an inside joke to him. He carefully closed his notebook and slipped it into his backpack. He didn't want to strain his bandaged limbs that still hurt at the slightest jerk. Once everything was tucked away where it belonged, stood up and headed out into the hallway. His carefulness not to brush against anyone, lest he hurt his still tender flesh was ruined as Suigetsu rushed to his side and grabbed his arm, knowing full well it hurt just as much as having someone swing a baseball bat against his arm.

"Hey, what's up man!?" He greeted with a toothy grin. "I hardly get to talk to you since you transferred from general ed. to robotics."

"Sorry." Zabuza grunted through clenched teeth. "I've just been a little busy, that's all." The two of them exited the building together and Zabuza quickened his pace.

"Hey, where you going!? Wanna come hang with me and my friends? We're going to that new karaoke bar with all those hot robot maids everyone's been talking about." Suigetsu winked, nudging Zabuza who grunted in pain again.

"Sorry, but I have something to do, maybe another time."

"Lame!" Suigetsu complained. "What could be more interesting than a bunch of girls who are programmed to love you unconditionally!?" Zabuza snorted, turning away. What was eating up his time was certainly much more important than singing with a bunch of robot girls.

"The robot I'm building." Zabuza told him. "I made a promise to a certain someone I'd finish it soon."

* * *

**"Snowflake" is a fic I wrote in October of 2009 and finished in January of the following year, and it wasn't meant to be very long- hence why it's such an easy read compared to my other chapter fics. I simply just wanted to write a story about robots, and used Zabuza and Haku as tools to write the story. Too bad I didn't know much about writing stories involving AI and whatnot, seeing as I pulled a bunch of ideas from other robot-themed media, leaving this story with very few of it's own, creative ideas. Still, it's a story I look back on fondly, despite its' lack of originality. It's, to date, the only ZabuxHaku story I have been able to finish. If you were able to look passed the heavy amounts of Chobits-related deja vu, I commend you, and I hope you enjoyed the story regardless of its' content!**

**-Zabu**


End file.
